The Communist Party of India (CPI) leadership in the State has come down heavily on three leaders, including legislature party leader and former Minister C. Divakaran, for their role in the controversial selection of candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections.
The party State council, which concluded its two-day meeting here on Saturday, decided to remove Mr. Divakaran, P. Ramachandran Nair, who had contested unsuccessfully in the constituency in 2009, and party district secretary Venjaramood Sasi, from the State executive committee.
The action was based on a report submitted by a three-member panel constituted by the council to look into serious allegations about candidate selection and source of election funding.
While Mr. Divakaran was demoted to the State council, Mr. Nair and Mr. Sasi were demoted further down to the party’s Thiruvananthapuram district council. Emerging from the State council meeting, Mr. Sasi announced that he was quitting the party.
Mr. Nair alleged that he was a victim of ‘nascent factionalism’ in the State CPI. Although Mr. Sasi spoke about an amount in the region of Rs.1.80 crore having been spent on the election campaign, Bennet Abraham, who had contested as the CPI candidate in the constituency, said he had given only Rs.9 lakh for the poll campaign.
Briefing reporters about the deliberations of the CPI State council, party State secretary Pannian Ravindran said the action against the three leaders was taken for their having deviated from the declared principles of the party.
The State council, he said, had concluded that the party’s State leadership had erred in the candidate selection, but denied reports that he had himself offered to step down owing responsibility for it. All reports about financial irregularities were exaggerations by the media, Mr. Ravindran said.
